[Vol. 2 



798 ANNALS OF THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN 



The diastases of fresh Laminaria seem slightly more active 

 than those isolated from the dried tissue ; however, no other 

 carbohydrases were evident than those shown in the previous 

 table. 



THE CARBOHYDRASES OF ASCOPHYLLUM NODOSUM AND MESOGLOEA 



DIVARICATA 



The Mesogloea material was dehydrated as soon as brought 

 into the laboratory, the preliminary fresh-water washing 

 being omitted because of the rapid gelatinization of the tissue. 

 The crushed dried tissue, extracted in the usual way, gave a 

 very heavy, stringy precipitate with alcohol, consisting, as did 

 that from Laminaria, mostly of slime. This, when diffused 

 in the usual volume of water, gave a very viscous mixture. 

 Crushed fresh Ascophyllum was extracted directly. The 

 viscosity of the extract was high, but the alcohol precipitate 

 from it came down in a flocculent mass that gave only a 

 slightly viscous diffusion with water. 



Experiments were set up with the various carbohydrates 

 heretofore employed, including laminarin, and in the different 

 series, amounts of the "diffusion-extract" were used varying 

 from 5-15 cc. As was true with the Fucus reported in the 

 previous study, in no case were there evidences of hydrolysis 

 even after 60 days at room temperature. 



THE CARBOHYDRASES OF RHODYMENIA PALMATA 



The air-dried Rhodymenia tissue proved to give rise to 

 one of the most viscous extracts encountered in the algae, 20 

 volumes of water being necessary to make handling possible. 

 With alcohol, a very rubbery, white precipitate came down 

 that was made up of a large proportion of algal slime. This 

 diffused very slowly, giving an extremely viscous mixture. 

 Ten cc. of the "diffusion-extract" were used with the sub- 

 strate to determine action, and toluene was added. The flasks 

 were kept at a temperature of 21-22 °C. for 100 days, sugar 

 determinations being made from time to time, the results of 

 which are given in table vii. 



The results here are quite comparable to those obtained 

 with Viva and Enter omorpha, the same carbohydrates being 



